Welcome to the 60

1
Welcome to the 60s

• Broadway in the 1960s

2
1960s American culture

• Early 60s was like the 1950s- think Leave it To
  Beaver
• Civil Rights movement was just beginning to heat
  up
• Beginning of the war in Vietnam
• Rise of the Womens Rights movement
• Beginnings of Hippie counterculture
• Folk music and the British Invasion were the
  popular styles
• Very sharply defined generational gap

3
How does this affect theater?

• Musicals and plays began to portray ideals of the
  social and political movements of the time
• Popular music began to filter onto the Broadway
  stage
• Broadway music, however, became scarce in the
  world of popular music
• Rather than portray the ideal American life,
  musicals began to show the flaws and problems in
  that ideal

4
Early signs of change

• The Fantasticks (1960)
• Two lovers, Matt and Luisa, are embroiled in a
  Romeo and Juliet style forbidden romance
• Their fathers pretend to dislike each other in
  order to get the children to fall in love
• The phony Bandit, El Gallo, is hired by Luisas
  father to stage a kidnapping of Lusia so Matt can
  rescue her
• However, in Act II, the lovers realize their
  entire life is phony, and after some hardship and
  sacrifice and fall in love with each other again
• Commentary on the suburban isolation of the 50s

5
Early signs of change

• Bye, Bye Birdie(1960)
• Early attempt to acknowledge the new musical
  styles and generation gap from the standpoint of
  the parents
• Examples Kids
• In the end, however, the conflicts are rendered
  unthreatening, and even laughable

6
The more things change, the more things stay the
same

• Hello, Dolly! (1964)
• Last, lighthearted, traditional musical with a
  lasting impact
• Features matchmaker Dolly Levi, who is in New
  York to match grumpy millionaire Horace
  Vandergelder
• Dolly, of course, intends for this match to be
  herself
• Several other individuals, including Horaces
  niece and his two store clerks ask Dolly for help